The Old Maid and Other Stories Read online

  “You two are impossible! You’re quite the most boring grown ups I’ve ever met in my life!” she squeals and runs off down the path. The other two jump to their feet and run after her, shouting and laughing as they go.

  #

  Old Meiga Bay, when they arrive at it, is every bit as beautiful as John described. They clamber quickly down the rocky path that carries them from the high cliff side all the way to the sandy beach far below. The sand is hot under their feet. Golden and dry, the heat of the sun has baked the surface into a thin crust that cracks deliciously under their feet as they run onto it. Sissy already has taken her sandals off, letting her feet sink under the warm surface, letting the sand squeeze its way in between her toes.

  “Didn’t I tell you?” John cries out, his smile beaming wider than ever. He’s proud of himself for having found this place for them, delighted at the effect its having, the shining happy faces on both the girls. “Isn’t it brilliant?” It’s a narrow bay, no more than a mile in length from one end to the other and sheltered by tall cliffs at either side. Out in front, the sandbank slopes away gradually under the sea so that the waves roll in quickly but gently and giving the water here a sparkling, iridescent appearance like something from a Mediterranean resort. Here, under the bright, cloudless skies of this never ending summer, it looks like a paradise, like a small piece of heaven set aside from the rest of the world.

  They’ve been walking so long under the sun that all three of them, no matter how hungry they’re getting, are desperate to get into the water, to cool off before they have their picnic. Sissy, of course, is first to go. With quick fingers, she undoes the buttons that run down the front of her dress to reveal the pale pink swimsuit she’s been wearing underneath. She lets the dress fall around her feet, stepping out of it to run, squealing and splashing happily into the shallow waters. The other two are a little more hesitant. Charlotte is looking around her, toying nervously with the strap of her bag. She wishes there were a rock nearby she could go to change behind. She’s suddenly aware of John watching her, of the way his eyes widened when Sissy’s dress fell to the floor.

  Out in the water, Sissy looks over her shoulder, surprised that the others aren’t following her. She see’s them exchange their shy, uncertain glances and gives a gasp of exasperation. She marches back to Charlotte and begins, quickly and unceremoniously, to undo her sister’s dress. “For goodness sake, you two,” she says quietly, a sly grin on her face, her eyebrow raised into a knowing arch. “What’s taking you so long?” Charlotte does not put up much of a fight. She breaks into a giggle and, catching John’s eye, her cheeks flush to a bright pink. Her eyes are wide and shining. Within a minute, she is pulling off shoes, tightening clasps in her hair and kicking her dress carelessly to one side. John too is undressing, ready for the sea. He unbuttons his shirt and strips quickly down to his dark blue swim-shorts. For a moment it looks as though Sissy is about to run over and help him too. A spark of wicked delight rush across her face as the idea comes to her. She starts towards him but, in that same instant, hesitates and thinks suddenly better of it. For the first time today she seems unsure, aware of herself and of what she’s doing. She wraps her arms around her chest and swings back to face Charlotte. “Are you ready now?” she cries. “Come on!”

  The two girls take each other by the hand and run out into the water, whooping with shock and pleasure as the cold, cold surf rolls over them. John waits for a moment, watching from the water’s edge. There is a look of wonder on his face and he gives a small laugh of disbelief. This day is folding out so much more perfectly than he ever could have imagined. He turns and looks up at the cliffs that surround them, along the beach to where their bags lie next to the discarded dresses of the two girls. He allows himself a smile and turns back to run out into the sea. The girls are shouting for him, splashing and laughing and calling his name out over and over.

  #

  It’s later on now and they’re sitting together on the beach. The sun has passed its highest point and is beginning the long, slow arc back towards the sea. It is still warm, especially here where the strange architecture of the cliffs acts somehow to keep away even the slightest breeze. They’re all three of them tired from the long walk and for the past hour they’ve been sitting back in the sand, leisurely picking their way through the lunch they carried all this way. This is the first time today they’ve stopped moving for more than a few minutes and they’re all making the most of it. There’s no rush anymore. This is what they came for, this long, languid afternoon out in the sun, out in the open in this beautiful place.

  They’re telling stories about themselves – some are true stories, some are close enough to being true for it to hardly matter so long as the other two laugh and groan along in all the right places. All these stories are still new to each other – even Charlotte and Sissy are telling things they’ve never told before – and they’re enjoying the opportunity to tell them to someone who hasn’t already heard them all before. John is doing most of the talking. He tells them about his father and the job he has in the family business. “I could have gone to University, of course,” he’s saying. “I thought about it, but it didn’t seem right. We thought it was best just to get started in something practical rather than wasting anymore time. I’ve got to get to know the business sometime,” he says. “It may as well be now.” He’s sitting cross legged with his back facing against a large rock. His head leans forward as he talks, his long blond fringe falling over his face. Charlotte is lying on her back in front of him. She has her dark glasses on. Happy and relaxed, she’s breathing long and steadily. By the way her breast rises and falls, so slowly, so regularly, you’d thing she could be asleep but for the word or two she occasionally murmurs, the smiles she grants to each of his jokes.

  John is talking now about the customers who come into the shop. He’s full of stories about them that have Sissy giggling and clapping happily. Charlotte smiles too at these, but really she’s paying more attention to how he moves as he talks than to the actual words themselves. Under the dark mask of her glasses she’s examining his face closely and intensely. She’s fascinated by his hair, by the way he lets it fall, the shape his hand makes as he pushes it aside. She’s watching his lips as he speaks, the way his tongue darts out from behind his teeth to moisten them, the way his smile spreads across his face as he laughs. She’s enjoying the freedom this moment is giving her. She’s never paid such close attention to another person the way she is to John right now. She realises what’s happening to her and she’s letting it happen, not worrying yet about what it might mean or what will come next. She moves her foot over so that it touches his knee. His hand drops down to rest upon it, his fingers squeezing gently each of her toes. It tickles terribly, but she doesn’t mind at all.

  “Lottie is going to University in the autumn,” says Sissy suddenly, interrupting a lull that has fallen over the conversation.

  “Really?” says John. “Where are you going?”

  Charlotte yawns and pushes her glasses up above her forehead. “No, not really. Teacher training school, actually.”

  “It’s practically the same as University, though,” Sissy says. “It’s in Oxford and everything.”

  “It’s just another school, really. More school after school so that one can qualify to go spend ones entire life back in school again. It really isn’t all that exciting at all”

  John laughs. “Sounds charming. I’m sure you’ll love it. You don’t sound so enthusiastic, though.”

  “Well,” Charlotte starts, then trails off. “I don’t really know why I’m going, to be honest.”

  “It was Father’s idea, really.” Sissy interrupts. “He said ‘it doesn’t look like you’re going to get yourself married, so we’ll have to find a job for you. Can’t have you hanging around here like an old maid, you know!’” She puffs her cheeks out and frowns severely as she t
alks, putting on the gruffest, most self-important tone her voice will allow. John gives a laugh, but Charlotte does not react at all. “He said it was either teaching or typing. Nothing else was ‘quite proper’ for a young gel like our Lottie.”

  “Sounds like a perfectly delightful chap, your father. I wonder if he’s ever met mine? Who knows, perhaps they’re long lost cousins or something?”

  “Oh, he’s alright,” says Charlotte. “He just has some funny ideas, that’s all. The way he talks sometimes, it’s as if he’s stuck in Victorian novel or something. He means well, though.”

  “And what would you prefer to be doing?”

  “Well, that’s rather the problem, isn’t it? I haven’t the faintest idea.”

  “I know what I’d do,” says Sissy. “As soon as I finish school - which is just ghastly, by the way - I’m going to travel the world. I’ll be horribly unconventional, you just watch me. I’ll have hundreds of lovers and never ever get married at all. I’ll be infamous for it. I’ll wear scandalous clothes, I’ll be photographed nude and I’ll be in all the newspapers practically every day. It’ll be just wonderful.”

  “Sissy! You’re incorrigible!” cries Charlotte. “Poor father would have a heart attack if he heard you say that.”

  “I don’t care,” says Sissy. “I don’t care at all.”

  They go swimming again. John strikes purposefully out into the sea, the other two, not quite so confident stay closer to the shore. They shout after him to come back, to not head out so far, but he doesn’t pay any attention. Only once he’s out properly into the deep water, with the swell of the waves lifting powerfully under him, does he turn round and tread water for a moment, the full curve of the bay cradled in front of him. He waves cheerfully back towards the girls then suddenly flounders, jerking backwards as though his foot is caught on something under the water. He splashes frantically, gives a half audible cry for help then disappears completely beneath the next wave. The girls scream out in panic, but it’s alright. It’s all just a game. After second or so, John’s head pops up again just a few feet in front of them, his face beaming a grin wider than any he has beamed all day. The girls shriek their disapproval and chase after him, splashing and grabbing at his legs. The chase goes on for sometime. First the girls hunt after John, then John comes back to chase them. Now Charlotte and John go after Sissy. Now Sissy and John gang up on Charlotte. So the permutations turn and so the game goes on.

  At last it all comes to an end with Charlotte running out of the surf, John right behind her. She stumbles and falls down into the warm sand, laughing so hard she can hardly catch her breath. John leaps onto her, his strong arms pinning her down to the floor. Their eyes meet for a moment and in that moment Charlotte does not breath. The thought that he’s about to kiss her washes through her mind. At one and the same time her muscles tighten and a flood of release blows through her. She can feel his warm breath on her face, the water drips from his hair upon her cheeks. She has not ever felt this way before. When he looks at her, she feels beautiful. In those few moments there on the sand she can see a whole lifetime ahead of her. Her life begins to make sense in a way it previously never has. If only she could live all her days in this moment, she would happily do so.

  He does not kiss her, though. Instead he rolls off and then pulls her to her feet. At that moment Sissy comes racing into them, shoving and tumbling John back down onto the sand again before running back to the safety of the sea. John chases back at her and Charlotte follows and so the game continues.

  The afternoon passes all too quickly. Soon enough they will have to think about making the long walk back home, but not yet. None of them want to even contemplate that quite yet. The two girls are sitting together in the sand. John is off at the far end of the bay, clambering over the rocks and boulders that stretch out in a long reef at the point where the cliffs reach down to the sea. He wants to explore the rock pools here before the tide comes in so far that the whole reef is covered over again. “I’ll go hunting for us,” he says. “What shall I bring you back?”

  “Bring us shrimp,” says Charlotte. “No, make it crabs. I want crabs.”

  “Can we have Lobster?” asks Sissy.

  “No, don’t be silly. I can get you mussels, though.”

  “I have no interest in mussels, foolish man. I will, however settle for oysters.”

  “I don’t think I’ll find any of those either, I’m afraid.”

  “Don’t bother us with your excuses, fisherboy! Queen Lottie and I demand oysters. Hundreds of them. We want enough oysters to fill all our bags, enough to make a whole dress just out of pearls, do you understand?”

  “I understand. Oysters it is, m’ladies. I’ll do my very best, you can count on it!”

  #

  Charlotte sits cross legged on the sand. Sissy is behind her, running a brush through her sister’s long, brown hair. Their bare arms and legs are both crusted with sand that glitters copper-like in the late afternoon sun.

  “I think John likes you,” Sissy whispers in her sister’s ear.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I think he does. You should see the way he looks at you.”

  “You should have seen the way he looked at you when you took your dress off earlier.”

  “Really? Nonsense.” She switches hands with the brush and begins on the other side of Charlotte’s hair. “What do you think of him?”

  “I’m not sure I think anything really.”

  “You are such a liar!”

  “Am not.”

  “Why do you do that? Why can’t you just admit you like him? I’m not such a little girl, you know. You can talk to me about these things.”

  “What precisely am I supposed to talk about?”

  “I saw you on the beach. Do you think I’m blind or something?”

  Charlotte doesn’t say anything. She’s afraid to say anything. She wishes this whole conversation would not happen.

  “You know what I think?”

  “Everybody knows what you think. You tell everybody absolutely everything, whether they want to hear it or not.”

  “I think Father’s right. I think you are an old maid. Or you will be if you don’t do something about it.”

  “Sissy! Don’t be horrible.”

  “What is it going to take to make you see it? Why don’t you just go over there and kiss him? Take him behind some rock and have your way with him. I won’t say anything. I wont even mind.”

  Charlotte pulls her head away and twists round to face her sister. “For goodness sake, Sissy, don’t be disgusting! You know you don’t understand anything at all. You think you do, but you don’t. It’s not all so simple as you think it is. This isn’t some fairy story we’re in, its real life. It’s complicated and it’s messy and no matter how hard you wish it, it just never works out the way you want it to. You really are just a little girl after all, you know. Really, it’s embarrassing the way you carry on sometimes.”

  She stands up and begins to brush the sand roughly from her legs and arms. Sissy’s face is set in a grim stare.

  “I was trying to help you,” she says. “You really shouldn’t talk to me like that. Don’t ever talk to me like that.”

  “Fine by me,” snaps Charlotte. “Whatever makes you think I want to talk to you at all?”

  #

  When the tide begins to come in, it comes quickly and they have to move fast to gather all their belongings together before the waves roll in far enough to leave them stranded. John throws his shirt on and the girls climb back into their summer dresses, fill their bags and together they begin again to climb up the steep, rocky path back up the cliffside.

  It’s early evening now and the sun has slung low in the sky at their backs. As they walk, their long shadows dance across the grassy cliff-tops, like three marionettes, dark and ridiculous, stretched out ahead of them. There’s still plenty of
daylight left, so they’re in no hurry. Besides, none of them has the energy left to skip and run along the path like they did this morning.

  The two girls have barely exchanged a word since they left the bay. Still smarting from their exchange on the beach, there is a tension between them now that hasn’t been there all day, though John seems hardly to have noticed it. He still talks away happily as they walk, a stream of silly jokes and observations. He is entirely himself now, comfortable and happy, there is no more of the naïve pretence of earlier in the day. Sissy keeps up with him, her reserves of girlish chatter never seeming to run dry, but Charlotte has grown quieter again. She is beginning to see the end of the day in sight and it’s making her spirits sink. Watching the other two walk on in front of her, Charlotte too cannot help but notice the way Sissy keeps putting her hand into John’s, or pushing her shoulder playfully against him as they walk. She notices too the way her sister, every few minutes or so, keeps glancing back to her, eager to make sure that Charlotte is watching. It’s a deliberate ploy, this much is obvious, to annoy Charlotte, to provoke a reaction of some sort. It’s exactly the sort of game that girlish, flirtatious Sissy enjoys playing and which always manages to crawl under her sister’s skin. Charlotte pretends not to notice, but the effort takes its toll and even when John calls to her, smiles at her or reaches out for her hand, she finds it hard to respond as she would want to. She wants to laugh again, to smile back at him, to show him what she feels, to be just as coy and cheerful as Sissy is, but she cannot. Suddenly everything about the day feels far more real that she wants it to.